The County of London is bounded N. and W. by Middlesex, E. by Essex and
Kent, S. by Kent and Surrey. The Metropolitan police area, or "Greater
London," however, embraces the whole of Middlesex, with parts of the
other three counties and of Hertfordshire. Its extent is 443,419 acres
or nearly 693 sq. m., and its population is about seven millions. Only
here and there upon its fringe the identity of this great area with the
metropolis is lost to the eye, where open country remains unbroken by
streets or close-set buildings.
_Site._--North of the Thames, and west of its tributary the Lea, which
partly bounds the administrative county on the east, London is built
upon a series of slight undulations, only rarely sufficient to make the
streets noticeably steep. On the northern boundary of the county a
height of 443 ft. is found on the open Hampstead Heath. The lesser
streams which flow from this high ground to the Thames are no longer
open. Some, however, as well as other natural features effaced by the
growth of the city, retain an historical interest through the survival
of their names in streets and districts, or through their relation to
the original site of London (in the present City). South of the Thames a
broken amphitheatre of low hills, approaching the river near Greenwich
and Woolwich on the east and Putney and Richmond on the west, encloses a
tract flatter than that to the north, and rises more abruptly in the
southern districts of Streatham, Norwood and Forest Hill.
In attempting to picture the site of London in its original condition,
that is, before any building took place, it is necessary to consider (1)
the condition of the Thames unconfined between made banks, (2) the
slopes overlooking it, (3) the tributary streams which watered these
slopes. The low ground between the slight hills flanking the Thames
valley, and therefore mainly south of the present river, was originally
occupied by a shallow lagoon of estuarine character, tidal, and
interspersed with marshy tracts and certain islets of relatively firm
land. Through this the main stream of the Thames pursued an ill-defined
course. The tributary streams entered through marshy channels. The
natural process of sedimentation assisted the gradual artificial
drainage of the marshes by means of embankments confining the river. The
breadth of this low tract, from Chelsea downward, was from 2 to 3 m. The
line of the foot of the southern hills, from Putney, where it nearly
approaches the present river, lies through Stockwell and Camberwell to
Greenwich, where it again approaches the river. On the north there is a
flat tract between Chelsea and Westminster, covering Pimlico, but from
Westminster down to the Tower there is a marked slope directly up from
the river bank. Lower still, marshes formerly extended far up the valley
of the Lea. The higher slopes of the hills were densely forested (cf.
the modern district-name St John's Wood), while the lower slopes, north
of the river, were more open (cf. Moor-gate). The original city grew up
on the site of the City of London of the present day, on a slight
eminence intersected by the Wal- or Wall-brook, and flanked on the west
by the river Fleet.
[Illustration: Map of The County of LONDON.]
These and other tributary streams have been covered in and built over
(in some cases serving as sewers), but it is possible to trace their
valleys at various points by the fall and rise of streets crossing them,
and their names survive, as will be seen, in various modern
applications. The Wallbrook rose in a marsh in the modern district of
Finsbury, and joined the Thames close to the Cannon Street railway
bridge. A street named after it runs south from the Mansion House
parallel with its course. The Fleet was larger, rising in, and
collecting various small streams from, the high ground of Hampstead. It
passed Kentish Town, Camden Town and King's Cross, and followed a line
approximating to King's Cross Road. The slope of Farringdon Road, where
crossed by Holborn Viaduct, and of New Bridge Street, Blackfriars, marks
its course exactly, and that of Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill its steep
banks. The name also appears in Fleet Road, Hampstead. From King's Cross
downward the banks were so steep and high that the stream was called
Hollow or Hole-bourne, this name surviving in Holborn; and it was fed
by numerous springs (Bagnigge Well, Clerkenwell and others) in this
vicinity. It entered a creek which was navigable for a considerable
distance, and formed a subsidiary harbour for the City, but by the 14th
century this was becoming choked with refuse, and though an attempt was
made to clear it, and wharves were built in 1670, it was wholly arched
over in 1737-1765 below Holborn Bridge. Continuing westward, the most
important stream was Tyburn (q.v.), which rose at Hampstead, and joined
the Thames through branches on either side of Thorney Island, on which
grew up the great ecclesiastical foundation of St Peter, Westminster,
better known as Westminster Abbey. There is no modern survival of the
name of Tyburn, which finds, indeed, its chief historical interest as
attaching to the famous place of execution which lay near the modern
Marble Arch. The residential district in this vicinity was known at a
later date as Tyburnia. The next stream westward was the Westbourne, the
name of which is perpetuated in Westbourne Grove and elsewhere in
Paddington. It rose on the heights of Hampstead, traversed Paddington,
may be traced in the course of the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park, ran
parallel to and east of Sloane Street, and joined the Thames close to
Chelsea Bridge. The main tributaries of the Thames from the north, to
east and west of those described, are not covered, nor is any tributary
of importance from the south entirely concealed.
_Geology._--London lies within the geological area known as the London
basin. Within the confines of Greater London the chalk which forms the
basement of this area appears at the surface in isolated patches about
Greenwich, while its main line approaches within 10 m. of the City to
the south and within 15 to the north-west. In the south and north-west
the typical London clay is the principal formation. In the south-east,
however, the Blackheath and Woolwich pebble-beds appear, with their
belts of Thanet sands bordering the chalk. Valley gravel borders the
Thames, with some interruptions, from Kingston to Greenwich, and
extends to a wide belt, with ramifications, from Wandsworth south to
Croydon, and in a narrower line from Greenwich towards Bromley. Brick
earth overlies it from Kensington to Brentford and west thereof, and
appears in Chelsea and Fulham, Hornsey and Stoke Newington, and in
patches south of the Thames between Battersea and Richmond. The main
deposits of alluvium occur below Lambeth and Westminster, and in the
valley of the Wandle, which joins the Thames from the south near
Putney. In the north and west the clay is interspersed with patches of
plateau gravel in the direction of Finchley (where boulder clay also
appears), Enfield and Barnet; and of Bagshot sands on Hampstead Heath
and Harrow Hill. Gravel is found on the high ground about Richmond
Park and Wimbledon. (See further MIDDLESEX.)
_Climate._--The climate is equable (though excessive heat is sometimes
felt for short periods during the summer) and moist, but healthy. Snow
is most common in the early months of the year. The fogs of London
have a peculiar and perhaps an exaggerated notoriety. They are apt to
occur at all seasons, are common from September to February, and most
common in November. The atmosphere of London is almost invariably
misty in a greater or less degree, but the denser fogs are generally
local and of no long duration. They sometimes cause a serious
dislocation of railway and other traffic. Their principal cause is the
smoke from the general domestic use of coal. The evil is of very long
standing, for in 1306 the citizens petitioned Edward I. to prohibit
the use of sea-coal, and he made it a capital offence. The average
temperature of the hottest month, July, is 64°.4 F.; of the coldest,
January, 37°.9; and the mean annual 50°.4. The mean annual rainfall
ranges in different parts of the metropolis from about 20½ to 27½ in.